A Sky Train travels south of downtown Vancouver. Regional transport provider TransLink is warning of massive service cuts unless what it calls a $600-million funding gap is addressed.JONATHAN HAYWARD/The Canadian Press
Metro Vancouver’s transit agency has calculated that it might have to cut up to half its bus routes, cancel the West Coast Express train that serves eastern suburbs and reduce SeaBus trips to the North Shore if it can’t solve its revenue gap.
TransLink chief executive officer Kevin Quinn on Thursday presented a staff report at the agency’s mayors’ council, predicting that hundreds of thousands of people would be cut off from transit within walking distance – and hundreds of thousands of jobs would become inaccessible – because of a $600-million-a-year funding shortfall.
Meanwhile, traffic congestion would likely increase by about 20 per cent, as many of the system’s 900,000 weekly riders would have to find other ways of getting around, the report says.
“We’re doing everything we can to avoid these catastrophic scenarios … but it is important to be transparent,” Mr. Quinn said.
Both he and regional mayors said that there has to be additional and consistent money for transit from the provincial and federal governments to help the agency grapple with the impact of decreasing fuel taxes – as more people drive electric vehicles – rising costs and fare revenue that’s been constrained by provincial limits.
The 2023 budget was $2.2-billion, which comes from a mix of fares, fuel tax, parking tax and property tax.
Brad West, the chair of the Translink Mayors’ Council, said the federal government’s recently announced $3-billion-a-year Canada Public Transit Fund is not adequate, but rather “a prepackaging of something announced several times already.”
Some mayors also emphasized that all of the current government efforts to spur housing construction, which have worked to incentivize or require cities to zone for much more density near bus and subway lines, won’t work if the transit system is decimated.
“If we don’t have transit, we can’t have transit-oriented density,” Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie said.
B.C. Transportation Minister Rob Fleming said in an e-mailed statement that his government is proud of the relationship it has forged with TransLink and Metro Vancouver mayors.
“In just the last two years, we provided almost $800-million to ensure services were not cut, and to expand much needed service across the region,” he said. “Because of these historic investments, TransLink has seen the fastest ridership recovery from the pandemic in North America.”
But the dire scenario painted by TransLink prompted calls from several groups to ensure that governments provide enough money to not just maintain the status quo but expand current transit service.
“Providing a reliable transit system across Metro Vancouver is essential for mobilizing people, families, and businesses in our community,” said Sammie Jo Rumbaua, the chair of the Mabuhay House Society, a Filipino advocacy organization, in a release.
In Surrey, trade board CEO Anita Huberman said in a statement that, “if the provincial and federal governments don’t realize that transportation is economic infrastructure and take action immediately on a sustainable funding plan, Surrey’s economy – in addition to the Metro Vancouver region and provincial economies – will be severely compromised.”
NDP, BC United and Green leaders all talked about the need to support transit in interviews and announcements after the TransLink staff report. BC United Leader Kevin Falcon announced that his party would commit to a SkyTrain expansion to North Vancouver, with the line crossing on a new and larger Second Narrows Bridge.
But B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad issued a statement saying the province can’t keep giving TransLink “billion-dollar bailouts,” noting that the agency has received nearly $1.7-billion since the NDP came to power, yet is still projecting deficits.
He suggested that TransLink should undergo an audit and only get stop-gap funding from the province for the next two years to develop a “back-on-track plan” that would outline a sustainable funding model that addresses “financial mismanagement, overcrowding and capacity issues.”
Mr. Quinn recently announced $91-million in cuts to the TransLink budget, where the agency looked at restructuring debt, cutting management and tackling fare evasion to find money, rather than reducing services.
The scenarios painted by staff in this week’s report on consequences for 2026 if the $600-million funding gap isn’t met also looked at ways to cut without affecting service, such as ending all community and customer outreach ($175-million) and eliminating the amount it spends on road maintenance ($41-million).
But that still means having to find $385-million through service cuts: “We would have no other choice but to reduce transit use,” said Sarah Ross, TransLink’s vice-president of transportation planning.
The agency’s only two options would then be to maintain service on the most heavily used lines, which would almost eliminate service in many suburbs; or try to maintain coverage of the whole region, but reduce levels overall.